I think I'd switch it so the bulbs face down - but the beauty is, that's super easy to do! Go see Camilla's post on Something is Done for a helpful breakdown on all the materials you'll need & instructions to make your own.

Here's a heartwarming story: ModVic founder Bruce Rosenbaum (designer of the house that first made me fall in love with steampunk) held a design contest to create a steampunk wheelchair for 14-year-old Kyron:

This is the winning design by Greg Hurley, and now Bruce is raising funds at indiegogo
to construct two of these chairs: one for Kyron, and one to be
exhibited on the road. If all goes well, maybe someday soon even more
fans will have their own customized chair!

This was the part that got me, though:

"With these tricked out Steampunk wheelchairs," Rosenbaum said, "the conversation changes from 'How did you lose the use of your legs?' to 'Where did you get the cool chair!?'"

Yes. This. (Is it dusty in here?)

Read more at the full article here, or head over to the Indiegogo page if you'd like to chip in.

20 comments:

I have GOT to get that wheelchair or at least jazz up the one I have! I can see myself in line for the Haunted Mansion in that bad boy! Amazing work!

Okay, I have a dumb question...I am kind of an artist, I dabble in a lot of mediums and I see some things on here I could make myself, but I am not creative enough to think up the things on my own. Does that mean if I make the things (given I give credit where it is due ideawise) they are any less beautiful and interesting? I am throwing around making the Doctors as Christmas ornaments. Little felt stuffed dolls of them with embroidery details...but there are other people out there who make the same thing so should I even bother?

I think Anony's answer below is spot on, so I'll just throw my vote in for Making Things no matter what the inspiration - provided you're not selling someone else's design, of course. It will already be unique because you make it, but if you want to change some of the details up to make it truly your own, then do that!

What Anon said, but also I wanted you to know you are not alone in feeling that way (and I am glad to learn I'm not alone, either!). It drives my husband batty that I call myself "not creative" - he doesn't quite get that I see "artistic" and "creative" as two totally different creatures.

However, now that I've learned to accept that "ideas popping out of thin air" is not my creative mileu, I've discovered that I AM that person who can take an "okay" idea and tweak it until it's an AWESOME idea. Whenever I'm forced to create something from scratch, I will spend anywhere from minutes to hours browsing the web for inspiration - not something to copy, but to use as a jumping-off point. And once I get started, it usually evolves until it's something uniquely mine.

@April Pendleya) Novelty can be a good thing in creative works but it's far from the only thing. Think about sonnets or haiku or the blues or cubist painting or many other things with an established form. These things can get you in the feelings super hard, but not because they're new.2) Everything you do is a thing itself but it is also practice for the next thing. Imagine that in a couple of years inspiration hits and you want to make the felt doll that will turn the world on its ear. If you haven't put in the time beforehand working on less "inspired" things using similar skills you're not going to turn that idea into a reality, at least not as well.D) You may not see the uniqueness of what you do but you're a person and the decisions you make, even the subtle ones that you don't think about (especially those?) communicate your brains. When LdV painted the Mona Lisa, did he say to himself "Now to paint the mouth just so at such and such an angle and this will blow everybody's mind"? Maybe. I think it's more likely, however, that he just applied his skills to a task and stumbled onto something great. iiii) What the hell. Do it for fun. Beats watching tv or whatever.

I see your point, I just wish my brain could come up with some of the amazing things I see. I would never sell anyone else's design...I just want to make my new house as original of a Disney-8 bit-steampunk-Doctor Who-50's kitsch-geeky-Lovecraftian place it can be! I am too much of a perfectionist I guess. I want all of my paintings to be masterpieces, all of my cakes to be mind-blowing...I guess I expect too much of myself. Thanks for your kind words. I will try to perfect the inspiration I get from other people...but I don't know how I could do better than what the people on here have already done. You all are awesome. :-)

The reason there are MILLIONS of tutorials online is because artists KNOW that others may want to use their ideas!!! It makes you no less of an artist to get inspiration from other people's ideas. There are so many people who don't have the skill to recreate other's work. They're the ones who buy! :o) If you've got the skills and desire, DO IT! If you don't have the skills, but do have the desire, try it anyway! You may surprise yourself.

Remember that you are, to a certain extent, immune to your own magic. Other people's work is easier to be impressed with because it slams into your perception all at once. Your own creations look to you like a collection of fine details, some better than others, because you've become so intimate with those details in the creation process before you ever got a look at the finished product. I'm very impressed with, for example, the sculpted monsters from this post, and I find no fault with them. I'd bet their creator could tell you a long list of flaws in all of them that drive her absolutely nuts. Looking at your work with "new eyes" as it approaches completion is a difficult and important skill to cultivate.

I would strongly discourage you from turning the chandelier bulbs downward. Made as they are, they very much evoke a Victorian acetylene-gas fixture. An acetylene fixture must burn upward, of course; turned downward, it would only set itself afire, so all acetylene lights pointed up.

Alia Z. almost makes me want to go do daredevil stunts that I know better than to do at my age. If I did end up in a cast is there a tutorial for how to make it look awesome? That is definitely a lemons to lemonade idea.

I wish it was a daredevil stunt. It would sound much better than "I fell off a curb and had surgery." Anyway step one after getting a cast is to get an incredibly talented friend with an airbrush. I'll say having a bionic arm made having a cast much more bearable.

Dear Jen,I love the wheelchair, but wonder if you would put an idea for consideration to your talented readers. I work with students in wheelchairs. There is usually not a good way for them to carry any gear, unless it is a backpack slung on the back. It often gets in the way of wheels and the student can't access it from the front without assistance. Often, it puts the chair off balance. Would you or one of your readers be willing to design a steampunk styled bag/pack/box to complement that awesome chair?